Mindlab activity 6
Step 1 (What): Identify one trend that is most relevant to your practice:
Step 1 (What): Identify one trend that is most relevant to your practice:
The trend that captivates my attention, along with most of the other Mindlab-ers is the rate at which technology is taking over in society. As a child I always thought it would be great to have a shop where you can scan your own items and pay for them. This I thought was a fairytale, and far from ever being real. Within 10-15 years, this was a reality. And it didn’t just stop here, now you don’t even have to physically go to the shops, online shopping is so easy and convenient.
When I started teaching 8 years ago, our school had 6 desktops that were being utilised amongst 100 students. Being a bit of a techy nerd, I pushed for our school to increase the devices we had available for student use. At first, many of my colleagues wanted nothing to do with our new C.O.W. (Computers On Wheels). The C.O.W. permanently lived in my room, and my students very quickly learnt how to log on, log off, type, search the web and e-mail. My colleagues quickly noticed the student engagement with learning when using technology and wanted in. At this stage, we were only using the technology as a substitute for the old ways we did things.
Step 2 (So What): Analyse the trend
With the change in technology, jobs are no longer safe. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly taking jobs from people that require repetitive movements, or predictable outcomes. For example, self checkouts, ATM’s, robots in car manufactures, etc.
As A teacher, I would hope that my job would be secure in the future, however there are some jobs a Robot could do to replace some of the tasks teachers are required to fulfill, e.g, assessments, playground duties, planning (to some extent), marking (closed questions), etc. There are also some areas of teaching where AI would make ‘better’ teachers compared to humans for example non-judgemental criticism from teachers. Many other teachers, (as I read through others’ blogs), identify some of the main characteristics that computers do not possess, which is important to be a successful teacher that makes a difference. “While machines can handle a variety of specific tasks, we haven’t yet come close to creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) — the kind of machine that could answer the tough questions outside the purview of the immediate lesson that good teachers should be prepared to tackle. Today’s robots also lack the empathy and ability to inspire that teachers bring to the classroom” (Houser, 2017).
Step 3 (Now What):
With this increasingly growing trend, students these days no longer require to be taught information, but rather how to find information needed, problem solve and to work collaboratively. I’m needing to prepare my students for a future I know nothing about, and can’t begin to predict what skills are needed for them to be successful in the future. I need to prepare my students to be adaptable, and to think outside the square. I need to prepare them for jobs that do not exist yet.
References
Houser, K. (2017). The solution to our education crisis might be AI. Futurism. Retrieved 18 March 2018, from https://futurism.com/ai-teachers-education-crisis/
Mrs Davan, You are right these 21st century skills are so important for preparing students for the future. Life was very different when we were at school. I am reminded daily that critical thinking skills are so important for our students as technology moves so fast and information becomes so readily available to our students.
ReplyDeleteAnd as teachers its interesting to think what parts of our job could be replaced by a robot such as planning and assessment and what parts could never be replaced such as high expectations for students, kindess, whanaungatanga and the time we currently spend doing all these jobs. I wonder now that I think about this if it will change the way I spend my time as a teacher as I think of preparing my students for the future.
Great stuff thinking outside the square and passing that on to your students.